Category: Personal

“I remember back when I was a first-year…our class had quite a few of those ‘save the world’ types.”

This line was said jokingly by a 3L during one of my first few weeks of law school. The group I was with laughed boisterously, and I joined in, but I felt a pang of sadness inside.

What is it about wanting to save the world that bothers people, so much so that we now have a term for it: “social justice warrior”? Maybe what bothered the 3L, and what bothers many about these so-called social justice warriors, is a certain pompousness that some inexperienced law students often possess: the belief that they alone are capable of making a difference. If there’s one thing law students are good at, it is comparing ourselves to our peers. So when faced with these bright-eyed, bushy-tailed peers that are ready to save the world, we often find ourselves asking this question: “Who are they to think that they can change the world?” Continue reading “Why I Still Want to Save the World”→

i. When I left for college I had a huge lump in my stomach. My nerves were tempered with ecstasy. Here was a space for new adventures, new lessons learned, new wisdom gained; yet, the new made way for cravings of the old. You can only eat school cafeteria salad for so long before you long for mama’s home cooking. While my classmates pined after their mothers’ chocolate chip cookies, mac and cheese, and casseroles, I dreamt of my 媽媽’s tofu with century eggs, squid stir fry, and curry. My understanding of casserole was elementary school lunch: the grey-green sludge made of canned green beans. Something tells me that is not the type of casserole my peers yearned for. Continue reading “Vignettes on Intersectionality”→

I don’t remember what exactly possessed me with the idea that day, but I had just shuffled out of my Religion & Culture class, which ended rather late at 5:15 PM. I had no dinner plans with anyone, and no time to make any. Immediately, I was transported back to middle school, when I would scurry back and forth between two girls’ washrooms, occasionally greeting teachers on the way as to not blow my cover, pretending I was about to go to recess. I’d find an empty stall, make sure no one saw me enter with my lunch bag and quickly scarf down my meal. It wasn’t until later that I was brave enough to confidently sit down at a lunch table and enjoy my solitude with a good book. For a long time, I didn’t want anyone to suspect that I was the girl who ate alone. Continue reading “A Simple Act”→

Aesthetic is a word that has become yet another cliché as of late. Though traditionally used more often as a noun, the new usage in pop culture tends to be adjectival and ironic, i.e. “That is so aesthetic!”

As contrived as the usage of “aesthetic” can be, I think it can still appropriately describe a certain je ne sais quoi, a vision of our lives and what we want it to look like. In essence, the word simply represents the act of appreciating beauty, which I believe has the potential to empower us. If we wait until all the little pieces of our lives are in place to be happy, to fit our aesthetic, then we may never truly be content.

The Japanese people have a interesting concept called 侘寂, or Wabi-sabi. It is their philosophy of aesthetics: “wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering authenticity above all” (source). I find this concept fascinating. This is more in line with how I personally view aesthetics – not as a goal, but instead, a daily act. I think the appreciation of beauty in the present – however frivolous or earnest (and sometimes both) – is respectable, and I hope to incorporate it more into my own life. Continue reading “Aesthetic”→

I have been journaling pretty frequently lately and that is not normal (for me).

I occasionally save random thoughts on Evernote, clip articles I’m interested in, and write full blown pieces for this blog, but journaling? It has always been something that I’ve feared a little.

Why, you might ask? After all, I don’t think writing your thoughts in a private notebook is usually on people’s lists of scary things. But to me, it is terrifying. Believe me, I’ve tried to keep a consistent journal so many times over the years I’ve lost count. I even found several notebooks that I filled from middle school and promptly put them through a shredder and threw them away. Continue reading “Vivre Sa Vie and Recording My Thoughts”→